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With the help of my amazing friends, and quite a few total strangers, I just finished filming, editing and uploading a Seoul remake of the Pharrell Williams HAPPY music video. Considering all filming was done on smart phones and the entire video was edited in a few hours, I think we did a pretty good job. Let me know what you think! :)

Summer in Ireland this year fell on Friday 10th August, and what a beautiful summer it was. As luck would have it, some wise soul in Cork decided to organize a Flash Mob in Grand Parade so we could ‘dance into the weekend’ in style!

Normally flash mobs gather quickly, do something wacky, then quickly disperse. This one was different…and better! It lasted nearly an hour and everyone just danced their socks off, basking in the sunshine, and moving up and down and around the street to the beat, with not a car in the world! Here are a few pics I took before joining in the fun myself!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

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I went out to meet a Spanish friend for lunch yesterday and ended up staying out til past midnight, thanks to all the free TradFest events in Temple Bar. I met up with a load of awesome couchsurfers and spent hours walking around from pub to pub listening to all the great traditional Irish music and even had a free Irish dancing lesson in The Arlington Hotel!

We drank, we danced on the street, we danced in the rain, we laughed, and I guess we all made some new friends!

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Today was so unbelievably frustrating. All 3 teachers were teaching students adjectives to describe what they think of certain music, dancing or hobbies. From exciting, to graceful, from beautiful to difficult, it would seem only one adjective in particular caught on in every class…BORING.

Korean students don’t exactly think for themselves and love to copy/borrow other peoples opinions, which I noticed on one of my first days teaching here. (Click here for the hilarious consequences) So considering the whole lesson today was based on, “What do you think of X? What do you think of Y?” I should have guessed it would be a flop.

When discussing various types of dances I decided to make the lesson more interesting by showing them some funny videos on you tube. For example this gem of “Stavros Flatley” from Britains Got Talent.

When it finshed I asked the class, so what do you think of this kind of dancing? Without even looking up from the pad they were all doodling on they replied in the same monotone one word anser they had been using for the whole lesson..BORING.

I showed them Riverdance…the legendary Riverdance with Michael Flatley. But oh how silly of me, that’s a BORING DANCE along with every other type of dance under the sun.

My level 5’s were discussing music. I was quick to discover that music I have loved all my life from Jazz music, Salsa music, Rock music, Country music, Reggae music and even classical music…are all BORING. How had I been so blind?! I did, miraculously, get one other adjective wrenched from their closed minds, it appears they are all fiercely patriotic when it comes to anything Korean… K-pop music is “good” and the Korean Fan Dance was “good” too. Kill me now!!!

How Boring...

We talked about Native American Rain dances and I showed them a photo of their elaborate and colorful costumes which were, you guessed it…BORING. I got frustrated at this point because there is no way in hell you could ever describe a rain dance as being “boring”. Extravagant maybe, spectacular, colourful, unusual, maybe even scary but no way is it BORING!

Turns out I wasn’t alone in my findings today. Cindy and Daniel, the other Native English teachers in my school was trying to deal with the exact same problems. Attempting to teach a whole unit on puppets (a Unit usually lasts 7 days) when the students keep emphasizing their dislike/indifference to the world of puppets can be quite the challenge! I guess the ONE HUNDRED AND ONE MILLION PEOPLE who viewed this puppet pals video must just be brain dead thinking this video could be…entertaining when its so OBVIOUSLY BORING!!

One disgruntled and…wait for it…bored..student cheekily commented in class saying , “Teachaa, This is supposed to be ENGLISH class, NOT music class!!” Thanks for the memo you cheeky brat, now prepare yourself for one HELL of a lot of homework, a big chunk of tedious, tiring, dull, irksome, annoying, uninteresting BORING homework coming right at ya!

When I go to a country it is not about how many museums I have visited, how many temples I’ve stayed in or how many photos I have taken…it is about how much of my time I can admit to being truly happy. I can honestly say that the last 3 months in Korea has been a chain of one hilarious moment after the other. Great memories with great people.

Cheers!

So, in the sprirt of all things liquid, and after just reading a list of the top 10 westerner bars in Korea, as composed by 10 Magazine and listed here on a fellow teachers blog, I have decided to compose a list of my favourite drinking establishments in the land of morning calm. (Silly to call it that really as my mornings are rarely what one wold call calm!!) Most of the bars mentioned are in Itaewon and are…wait for it… Irish pubs. Normally, I would agree with this list as I absolutely love Irish bars. In Korea however, there so many bars WAY cooler than those fake leprechaun magnets that no Irish bar makes it on to my list. Now there’s a first.

Rooftop Bar in Geumchon… The location for our weekly social (to be read drinking session). About 20-30 waygooks gather at this rooftop beer garden every Wednesday for singing, drinking and general banter.

Kats Bar… Our local bar in Munsan and also a favourite among DMZ soldiers. It’s a tiny little place but the cocktails are killer and the tunes are pumping, thanks to our personal playlists!

GoGos… Home to cheesy music, cheap Vodka sets and table dancing, one of the most fun spots in Hongdae.

FFs... Directly below GoGos you will find me here, without fail, from about 4am onwards every Saturday night. They have cheap drinks,a free drink voucher on arrival and a stage to dance on. Bring it on!

Monkey Beach Club…I’ve only been here once but it was totally awesome. They sell drinks, thai style, in BUCKETS. The bar is lined with tables to dance on and everyone is covered in neon glow sticks. Full moon party anyone?

Oi Bar... Awesome bar in Hongdae with all these private cave like booths and little steams meandering their way around the dance floor and the shell-like DJ podium. Super cool…and 6,000 won cocktails!

Soju Time!

Ho Bar… Despite many bad reviews, music that is often way too loud to be bearable, I cant not like a bar that stays open until 8am in the morning. You can get a vodka for about 3,000 won too, which is cheap as chips. Plus there is not just one Ho bar…there are TEN Ho bars!! Jackpot.

Intos… This one is in Ilsan and is a seriously awesome international sports bar. They have darts, pool, foosball, air hockey and an array of games such a scrabble and jenga. We spent one whole weekend in this bar, by accident, and the super friendly owners let us take over the music system which ended up in endless Irish songs including RIVERDANCE been blasted out!

Zan Bar… Also in Ilsan, this bar had a pretty crappy atmosphere but they have, wait for it, Tequila shots for 1500 won, i.e FOR NOTHING. Cant go wrong with 1 euro tequila, can you?

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It’s 5pm, the sun is shining and over 150 people from all walks of life (from a mother with her newborn baby, punks, travellers, teachers, ballet dancers) are waiting with anticipation in Yeouido Park in Seoul. Ten minutes later these same people, equipped with just a set of wireless headphones and a balloon, are randomly jumping up and down shouting “Shots, Shots… Shots Shots Shots!” , while bemused passersby try to figure what on earth is going on.

Welcome to “The Silent Disco : City attack”. It was a bit like an Improv Everywhere Flashmob, where a random group of people suddenly turns up and starts dancing in a public place for no particular reason except to enterain passersby and to have fun. Except, unlike a flashmob, it lasted 3 hours!! It was more of a ‘Dance Parade’ than anything else.

Silent Disco in Yeouidi park, Seoul

While you had your head phones on, listening to either hardcore dance tunes or sing-a-long classics such as Journeys ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ it almost seemed normal to be randomly dancing in a park or along a footpath. However, once you took off your headphones and looked around the eclevtic group of 150 people,who were seemingly dancing in total silence, you couldn’t help but laugh and realise what a bizarre sight it was.

As our travelling band of dancers jumped, rolled, danced and sand our way around Seoul, every so often our leader would give us a random task, such as “Ok everyone HUG evertone else. Now! Now! Quick hug everyone!” or “Ok see those group of old ladies over there…Go high Five them…yes everyone…go! Go high five them NOW!” It was hilarious.

A pretty bizzare sight...an array of colour and total silence

Every so often a very well known song would blast out of our headphones and literally everyone would start shouting out random phrases from the somg such as “I got all the girls, I got all the Girls..yeah, I got all the girls I got ALL the girls” or “Shots, shots shots….EVERYBODY!”, further amusing our growing group of spectators, who were totally clueless as to what was going on.